Ray Leonard At 147lbs Today?

Thurman????????? Lol. Keith Thurman has as much chance of beating Ray Leonard as a domestic dog would have against a tiger.

Leonard beats everyone currently in the division. End of story, theres really no counter argument.

 

It's a deep division now but I still wouldn't back any of Thurman, Spence, Crawford or even Mikey Garcia against Leonard at present.

Leonard was one of the most physically gifted and talented welters I've seen. Insane speed, great legs, power and will. Just a complete fighter and it would take one of the aforementioned to do something special to separate them from the pack to make me think they would be a chance with Ray.

 

Even Mikey Garcia? You worded that like Mikey is above the other welters.

Leonard would demolish Mikey in under 5.

 

Their would be no real threat to prime Leonard from welter to middle in my opinion, and very possible to Lt.heavy. Where I would pick Leonard 50/50 over all of the Lt.heavy's .

 

Crawford would stand a much better chance than Garcia because he has deadly welter power, Garcia hasn`t proven that yet, it would be easier for Ray overpower him or outreach him, Crawford has longer reach it seems to me.

 

Leonard never proved himself at light heavy, Lalonde wouldn`t even be a world champ now, Kovalev would destroy Ray easily as would Alvarez. GG and Canelo would beat Ray at middle, I did a thread with a youtube vid that proved Hagler convincingly beat Ray in their middleweight clash.

 

Crawford v Ray would be like the `81 fight v Hearns, Crawford has good reach which he exploits with a great jab, this will hamper Ray the way Tommy`s jab did except Hearns had much more reach than Crawford.

 

When Ray Leonard fought at welterweight, the weigh-ins took place the day of the fight. Boxers tended to actually step in the ring and fight in the weight division where they were fighting for or defending a title. When Thomas Hearns weighed in for the first Leonard fight, he weighed 145 - two pounds under the limit ... THE DAY OF THE FIGHT.

When fighters do unofficial weigh-ins today a couple hours before fights, they often are two or sometimes THREE divisions heavier than the weight class they are supposed to be competing in.

If you watch Leonard and his welterweight peers from the late 70s/early 80s on film, they all appear significantly smaller than the welters today BECAUSE THEY WERE when they are fighting. I doubt there's been a welterweight title fight in the last couple decades where BOTH guys didn't enter the ring as middleweights.

The welterweight Leonard would basically be challenging the "middleweight" Keith Thurman. Or the "middleweight" Errol Spence, because that's where they would be if they were fighting in the late 70s/early 80s. None of them today could actually weigh under 147 and actually fight. When we've seen guys like Thurman fight as a pro, he's always stepped in the ring and fought in the high 150s or low 160s.

I would favor Leonard over most of today's "welters", but it wouldn't be the cakewalk most are painting it to be. If they moved weigh-ins back to the day of the fights, every welterweight belt today would be vacated and all those guys would be middleweights.

And Leonard would have no chance against today's Light Heavys. They are all close to 200 pounds on fight night - 30 pounds heavier than Donnie Lalonde was when he fought Leonard and had him on the floor.

 

That's your opinion and your certainly welcome to that, But I haven't seen ANYTHING from Triple G. And especially Canelo that would suggest they could defeat a prime Leonard (Canelo was given a boxing lesson by a fighter that's a natural lightweight ) and that same Canelo defeated that other great hype job Triple G. It's much easier today to look great when your merely a good fighter fighting bad competition. Fighters today always remind me of Jaime Garza, And Garza should be the biggest reminder to anyone about how levels of competition can make a fighter look much better than he is.

 

Leonard didn`t have the speed of a natural lightweight at middle and Canelo and GG are both faster than Hagler was in the Leanard fight.

 

I wasn't aware that Crawford was 6'1 with a 78 inch reach and one of the best right hands in history like Hearns...

Leonard eats Crawford up. For Christ Sake, look what Gamboa was doing to Crawford for a few rounds.

 

Do you honestly believe that? besides that natural lightweight didn't have the speed he had at his natural weight, nor the pop in his punches, he just schooled Canelo, its that simple . Canelo has faced one great fighter in his career he lost to him. conversely Triple G's faced one very good fighter his entire career, Canelo Alvarez, and he has a draw and a lost to him. Please stop following these" undefeated " records , it's easy to do if your skillfully managed and matched against fighters your preordained to win against.

 

I would think Crawford would do the best against Ray,,,,but I don't think any of them could beat Ray in his prime

 

Lalonde had a good right hand and decent jab.. If he fought Kovalev or Alvarez I give him a chance. These guys today are not that great. Kovalev is big, so Ray might have trouble, but Kovalev is not a great light heavyweight as the last few years have shown.